Since meeting in Banff in 1990, audiovisual producer and photographer Patrick McCloskey and environmental educator Heather Walter have travelled the world, shooting videos and films of their discoveries. At the end of this month, as part of the Mountain Culture Speakers’ Series at The Banff Centre, they’ll present a talk and slide show of the landscape and culture of Yemen, a little-known country on the edge of the Arabian Peninsula.
Journeying to Yemen in the fall of 2006, McCloskey and Walter discovered a country that combined modern and traditional in a dramatic and exotic way. “We entered the fray of life in the streets and suqs of Yemen, and we realized that the beauty and appeal of this place was not only in its bricks and mortar, but in its flesh and blood,” McCloskey says. “Wherever we travelled we were greeted with warmth and enthusiasm, and the few words in English that everyone seemed to know – “Welcome to Yemen!”’
The presentation will take listeners from the cacophonous, mosque-filled streets of Yemen’s capital, Old Sana’a, to the arid mountains and rolling deserts of the country’s landscape. Along the way, McCloskey and Walter discover old trade routes and the remnants of camel caravans, the pristine coastline of the Arabian Sea, and unique, meticulously decorated Middle Eastern architecture.
After getting his start in photography, Patrick McCloskey became an AV producer, working for Parks Canada in Ottawa and Winnipeg. After establishing his own company in 1981, he has continued to interpret the geographical and cultural world in his own productions. An environmental educator who began her career in the early 1980s in Newfoundland, Heather Walter is a writer, teacher, and musician with a particular interest in interpreting nature, culture and history. Together, McCloskey and Walter produced a film that was screened at the 2006 Banff Mountain Film Festival, Heartbeats of Denali.
Patrick McCloskey will open an exhibition of his Yemen photographs the night of the Speaker’s Series. The exhibition will be on display in the Husky Energy Foyer of The Banff Centre’s Max Bell Building through February, 2008.
The Banff Mountain Speaker’s Series is generously sponsored by Banff’s Juniper Hotel.
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More information on Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre.
Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475
